Here’s what I didn’t say in June, but could have, “With the promotion of George Springer and Gregory Polanco, Mike Trout and Mike Trout’s father, Tim Salmon, should make room in their mini-van that’s designed to look like a submarine because there’s new top hitters in the major leagues of baseball. Put down your periscope, Trout, no need to look any further. You have the new challenger for your supremacy. Polanco is especially intriguing due to his blend of speed and power, and inability to hit for a low average. There’s just no chance he hits below .280. No chance. Also, on August 25th play the Powerball numbers 37-08-32-11-09-38.” And that’s me quoting what I could’ve said! Of course, I didn’t say it exactly like that, but that was generally my feelings. As it started to appear like each was overmatched, I told you to sell both of them before they bottomed out. Springer’s got his strikeout problems, that I’ll go over at some point in the offseason, but Polanco got a raw deal. He had 6 homers, 12 steals in 64 games. That’s a 15-homer, 30-steal guy next year. The Pirates demoted him yesterday as some kind of neg designed by pick-up artist, Mystery. Polanco’s K-rate wasn’t terrible, his walk rate was fine, he was done in by a .241 average. A .241 average with the aforementioned strikeout rate that wasn’t bad. So what happened? He was unlucky. That batting average was being grounded by a .277 BABIP. With his speed, Polanco could easily have a .320 BABIP and a .290 average. For this year, you can lose him, but I’m still going to like him in 2015. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Pedro Alvarez – 2-for-4 and his 18th homer and 3rd homer in the last three games. Dah, I actually picked him up for the batty call, but realized that I had Jon Singleton already in my corner infidel slot. Why would Jon Singleton stop me from picking up a hot bat in Alvarez? That’s a question I’d like to ask Yesterday Grey. I’ve since rectified the situation and grabbed Alvarez.

Francisco Liriano – 6 IP, 0 ER, 7 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA down to 3.98. Of course he pitched well, he was just waiting until he had scared away every last fantasy owner with his 4 IP, 7 ER game last time out. Thanks, jackass!

Yadier Molina – Will begin a rehab stint today, which puts him about a week away. Momma Molina must be thrilled, one less mouth to feed.

Michael Wacha – Will throw live batting practice on Wednesday. Bad news is that puts him on track to throw maybe one game this year in the majors. Good news is it’s live batting practice. The alternative is much worse. Ask Ted Williams.

Oscar Taveras – 0-for-4. The Cardinals said Taveras has ‘made huge adjustments at the plate.’ TMI! Shift your jockstrap when you’re in the dugout. Gross!

Trevor Rosenthal – 1 IP, 1 ER and the save and homer allowed to Andrew McCutchen (3-for-4). On a scale of one to ten, how appropriate is it that my autocorrect wants to change Rosenthal to nonlethal?

Jorge Soler – Who? OH, HIM! The Cubs announced he’s being called up to play everyday right field. I already gave you my Jorge Soler fantasy. There I said, “Soler’s hot butter on Oprah’s thigh with Stedman moving in. Sexy and weirdly erotic. Soler, Bryant and Baez are like 1A, 1B, there’s no 1C and 1D. Soler missed a month earlier in the year with a hamstring injury, but he’s been fine for a while now. Shoot, I’d even say F-I-N-E, fine. He has some slight speed, 30-homer power and a .280 average. Basically, every All-Star outfielder of the last ten years. Grabbing a guy with something to prove with this much talent, this is what H2H leagues are won with! Or any leagues, for that matter.” And that’s me quoting me! Nothing’s changed from then, and I’d still grab Soler in every league.

Eric O’Flaherty – The A’s said they prefer to go with the dad from Freaks and Geeks as their closer over Luke Gregerson. My bad on that, since I thought for sure it would be Gregerson and said so yesterday. Usually it’s a no-brainer — my specialty! — to just move the set-up man back one inning into the ninth, but if we’ve learned anything there’s no such thing as a no-brainer with Billy Beane. The road less traveled is the Way of the Beane. He challenges you to think. Whether that means having six catchers on the field at once or platooning managers when Melvin doesn’t agree with something. “Bob, for this inning, Coco Crisp is going to manager, he knows how to hit and run better.” I grabbed O’Flaherty where I could, but I also didn’t drop Gregerson yet, because I don’t think this is going to be as clear-cut as just giving it to O’Flaherty. Ryan Cook and Danny Otero could also get looks. Basically, it’s a closerousel, until we know more.

Drew Pomeranz – Likely to start on Wednesday for the A’s when they use a sixth starter. Hey, they could have a personal catcher for every pitcher! Pomeranz is a decent streamer for this matchup, but he’s not guaranteed any starts after this, so don’t drop anyone too valuable for it.

John Jaso – Hit the 7-day concussion DL. Luckily, the A’s just got Geovany so they have a backupbackup backup catcher.

Josh Donaldson – 3-for-4, 3 RBIs and his 8th steal. That goes with his 25 homers. And he’s headed for 100 RBIs. And 90 runs. Sure, he’s hitting only .252, but you’re quibbling. No one likes a quibbler.

Josh Reddick – 1-for-2, 2 runs, 2 RBIs and his 10th homer. I’m sure glad I just dropped him yesterday. Sure am glad. *dons a potato sack, walks into a Macy’s and asks for a giant French fry cutter*

Jeff Samardzija – 8 IP, 2 ER, 7 baserunners, 10 Ks vs. the Astros. I wanted to say something like it never hurts to go against a team that is collectively hitting (fill-in number), so I went to look up the Astros’ team batting average. It’s .240, but what I also saw there…The Padres are hitting .226! You gotta break some goose eggs to make an omelet and you need to fold those goose eggs that are the Padres into another team.

George Springer – Aiming to return for the first series of September. Prepare to launch: Operation Rookie Nookie.

Chris Carter – 1-for-4, 2 RBIs and his 31st homer. Hurry K’d Carter looked done, but he’s back to getting one hit per game, which happens to be a homer.

Jake Odorizzi – 4 IP, 8 ER. Forget Jake, he’s giving me an angina frown. His next start is positive on the Stream-o-Nator, but I have to admit you got larger testes than yours truly if you can throw him right after this start.

Delmon Young – 3-for-3, 3 RBIs and his 6th homer. If he hits 270 homers in September, people are gonna be like, “What bust?!”

J.J. Hardy – 1-for-4 and his 8th homer. Still believe in my hearts of hearts, which is my heart inside my heart that I shield from you hurtful mothers, that Hardy is going to get to 17 homers by the end of the year. Yeah, he’s got a long way to go.

Nick Markakis – 1-for-5, 2 RBIs and his 12th homer. On our Player Rater, you wanna guess who had more fantasy value this year: Markakis or Chris Davis (who also homered yesterday)? Kind of a trick question. Sadly, they were tied at 190 going into yesterday’s game.

Steve Pearce – 2-for-5, 2 runs and his 15th homer. Yes, anyone that owned any Orioles yesterday were getting the O’s face as just about everyone in the lineup homered, but Pearce is hot again. He’s now homered four times in the last eight days, which The Beatles would call a week. Hot schmotato alert!

Chris Tillman – 7 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 2 Ks. O’s jumped out to an early lead and Tillman cruised out to the Ivictory Coast and stayed overnight at the W. Comped room like a baller!

Adam Eaton – Set to return from the DL on Tuesday. I feel like whenever Eaton is mentioned the thought of him is greater than he actually is. Maybe everyone’s just hungry. He has 1 homer and 12 steals this year with a .304 average that’s being supported by an inflated BABIP. He’s fine if you need speed and a guy that should get runs, but is he any better than Denard Span or Ben Revere, assuming they are different guys? Nah, not really.

David Ortiz – Didn’t start yesterday due to his elbow/foot. Guess that means Ortiz has a foreshin and thighceps.

Mookie Betts – 1-for-3 and a slam (2) and legs (4). It always amuses me how much people are hyped about a guy when he first comes up, but then he gets sent down, returns, starts to produce and people couldn’t care less. Okay, it only amuses me.

Dustin Pedroia – 1-for-5, 2 RBIs and his 6th homer. Be interesting to see where he’s drafted next year. I have a feeling at places like ESPN he’s still going to be overrated even though he’s barely a top 200 player right now.

Koji Uehara – 2/3 IP, 0 ER and his 4th blown save, after giving up 5 ER in his last appearance. He’ll probably be fine, but I’m holding onto Edward Mujica just in case, since he seems to have a favored nations clause in his contract even though he hasn’t been terrific.

Jedd Gyorko – Missed his third game of the last four due to a strained hamstring. EverCab must’ve sneezed on him.

Carlos Quentin – Done for the season. I gotta admit, I had no idea he was still in the league. I thought he retired after the 2011 season. This is weird.

Kyle Lohse – 6 IP, 1 ER, 8 baserunners, 5 Ks vs. the Padres. Up in the Carter blurb we learned about the threat on good taste that the Padres are pulling off. Seriously, has any team ever hit for that low of an average before? My Google is broken.

Aramis Ramirez – 3-for-5, 2 runs, 3 RBIs and his 14th homer. In this game, Ryan Braun also homered (3-for-4, 2 runs, his 17th homer). Both guys left the game early and because my Google is broken, I’m gonna guess at least one of them is injured. Never in the history of ever have Aramis and Braun both left the game early and not one of them been hurt. Hey, Time Warner fixed my Google. Braun has a left quad bruise and is day-to-day, it says there, where I wrote it.

Wade LeBlanc – 3 1/3 IP, 6 ER. But if a monkey were playing third, that would’ve been hilarious!

Jarred Cosart – 7 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 8 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA on the Marlins down to 2.08. Still don’t trust him, and if you pick up Jarred, you will end up scarred.

Yu Darvish – Rangers GM said Darvish is likely done this year. Here I thought they’d send him out there to try to get their elusive 55th win. The Rangers fan that went into a coma in March and is just now shaking out of it may want to go comatose again for another six months. Comatose Rangers fan, “I just hope Darvish is ready for the playoffs! Right? How come everyone’s looking at me weird? I can handle it. What’s up?”

Shin-Soo Choo – Will have season-ending elbow surgery. Comatose Rangers Fan, “Thank God, we went out and got Fielder this offseason. Right? Stop staring at me and say something!”

Wilin Rosario – Sat out for his third straight game due to a wrist issue. After Weiss said he was starting McKenry again, Rosario indicated the wrist issue by making a jerking off motion.

Tim Lincecum – Was removed from the rotation. Next stop, getting traded to the Rockies. I’d love to see the clauses Lincecum would put into that contract.

Jake Peavy – 7 IP, 1 ER, 7 baserunners, 5 Ks, 3.18 ERA on the Giants. It hasn’t hurt to face the weak sisters of the NL, and I’d grab Peavy if he’s out there in your league. He should get the Brewers at home (fine), Tigers (not good), then the Diamondbacks twice and the Padres twice.

Asdrubal Cabrera – Didn’t start yesterday due to a sore side. That sounds like a day-to-day injury that becomes a month-long thing that people are just shaking their heads over and saying, “Oblique.”

Tanner Roark – 6 IP, 2 ER, 6 baserunners, 2 Ks, ERA barely up to 2.81. Tanner put up with a lot of negative stereotypes when The Jersey Shore was popular, but he’s turned into a solid number three starter this year. Good for him, bad for me since I dropped him and Rudy grabbed him. *shakes fist* Rudy!!!

Wilson Ramos – 1-for-4 and his 7th homer. That puts recovery from a broken hamate bone at about 4 months.

A.J. Burnett – 7 IP, 1 ER, 4 baserunners, 12 Ks, ERA down to 4.30. Well, 12 Ks makes me stand up at attention. And I’m not standing on my feet, if you catch my drift. If you don’t, stand a little to your left and I’ll fan my drift in that direction. Got it now? Nice. Double barrel Burnett action makes me want to tug on my ear. He’s been unreliable all year, looking to get tattooed even when on the mound, but if you need Ks, he goes to Metco next time out.

Carlos Ruiz – 1-for-3 and his 4th homer. His upside ceiling is low like the 7 1/2 floor from Being John Malkovich, but he is hitting near-.400 in the last week and has two homers in the last 11 games.

Cody Asche – 1-for-3 and his 9th homer. I told you he was a preseason sleeper! *slowly tiptoes out of the room*

Michael Pineda – 6 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 1.95. Since I don’t own him, can someone check him for pine tar? Stream-o-Nator hates him in just about every start, but I’d definitely stream him if I had the need and he was available in my league.

Martin Prado – 2-for-4 and his 4th homer. Pretty terrible season overall, unless you’re only comparing him to Ryan Zimmerman. Then he hasn’t been bad.

Stephen Drew – 1-for-5 and his 6th homer. I was watching the game yesterday and when the announcer said, “Drew up.” I did momentarily feel queasy.

Jacoby Ellsbury – 3-for-5, 2 runs, 3 RBIs and his 11th homer, hitting .280. I projected him for 13 homers, a .279 average and *covers mouth* 32 steals (he has 35). I ranked him 29th in the preseason, and I was very low on him compared to others. He’s currently ranked 54th overall on our Player Rater.

Eric Hosmer – Began swinging a bat, and is probably two weeks away barring any setbacks. Be interesting to see if the media picks up right where they left off when he went on the DL with them following him around to see if he can get to 7 homers. It’s a post-steroids era home run chase.

Mike Moustakas – 1-for-3 and his 15th homer. Don’t you want to get his autograph and ask him to sign it, “Mostsuckass?” Maybe it’s just me.

Jarrod Dyson – 2-for-4 and his 29th steal. Kinda sad how he steals bases just to get the love of Rajai, The King of SAGNOF. Like a child that doesn’t get enough attention.

Jumped all over Gregerson last night when you told me too. Yeah. Oh well, between Odorizzi and Shields, my ratios are F’d anyway so dropping Joe Nathan can’t hurt that much. Thank Jeebus I have two weeks to recover.

On the bright side, I was able to snag Soler…

Talked way too much shit this season to bow out in the first round of playoffs…

I’m back from Odorizzi island – but guess what – I’m going back there this weekend for Boston. How you like those cahones.

I have a 7 game lead for the regular season H2H 6×6 champion – pays out $550 – and I’m playing 2nd place. I just need 3 categories to cash that moolah – thanks for all the help this year Grey, time to wrap this shizz up B!

Battling for playoffs and Polanco gets sent down.. only have 9 moves left and trying to save them for playoffs. But is it worth dropping polanco to add one of dyson, jay, joyce, incarte, or peralta. Pretty deep lewgue and start 5 ofs.

I dropped Mesoraco for Soler… Mes was filling my utility spot, and he’s been slumping hard. The deed has been done, but would anybody else have made the same move? It was either to drop Mesoraco or Avisail…

In a 12 team H2H, we keep 2, would you cut Carter for Soler? Carter has been playing for me everyday, but only because of his crazy power streak. If it wasn’t a short day he might have been on the bench for me yesterday

Morning everyone.
Grey I think I need to prepare for my young arms to start to potentially tire a bit(odorizzi got me thinking).
I want to bid on Pomeranz and take a chance that he gets some more starts. You think it’s worth dropping Marisnick? Should be fine, right?(I have Soler and Springer coming back)

With polanco being sent down was able to grab soler to feed my need for that rookie nookie.

Take Alvarez over gyorko ROS?

Neosporain has really helped with my catcher scab this year, but maybe too much as I have had Rosario rotting away in that spot all season. But damn what a waste. Even when doode does play he isn’t productive. Grab Castro or let it ride with Rosario?

@Bye Felicia: @Bye Felicia: yeah it’s weird, 10 teamer with deep benches so our pitchers are way deeper than 12 team leagues (arrieta was gone about 2 weeks before anybody around here would’ve advised one to actually own him), but hitters fly in and out of rosters, even good ones.

Will probably look to drop down to one bench batter come playoff time.

a) Who gets the boot to make room for Soler? I figure I can wait it out a while since I’m a lock for the postseason.
b) Guys like Avasail, Austin Jackson, Arcia, Pearce on the wire. Anyone worth a look?
c) Is someone like Kipnis droppable if I have other decent MI options and he continues to be mediocre?

So here’s the world’s dumbest question- I’ve never played in a league with an starts cap before. What do I do with my SP’s once I hit the cap? Horde them so no one else can have them? Release them back into the wild?

@Gonzo_The_Great: Are you playing Roto? My league is Roto with 200 start limit, and I try to hit the 200 start limit with 2 weeks left in the season. Only hold on to your Ace if the guy with the highest waiver pick will benefit from him and possibly pass you in points due to the pick up. Pick up RP’s that get a lot of K’s and pitch almost every other day. Your league rules might be different, but in ours relievers still count towards your stats, as long as they aren’t starting.

Braun had a knee to knee collision while running to 1st in the first inning. Said he’s fine and since he stayed in, he should be good to go. I say this while wearing a necklace of Lucky Charms marshmallows and swinging a picture of Braun over incense smoke as Deep Forest plays in the background.

So, I’ve been getting some meh-duction at SS from Alcides for some time now, and the stupid Rotoworld notes writer got in my head this morning by pointing out that Alcides hasn’t been stealing bases in the second half. He hasn’t. I’ve used my streamer spot and plugged in Betts for now, but is it time to part ways with Alcides? I want to use the spot to start Pomeranz tomorrow….

BTW, is there a glossary term for when Rotoworld notes get in your head? Tranny porn, perhaps?

Is my shit good?
Does a bear shit in the woods?
If I drop an album with no one around to hear it then could,
I be regarded as an artist or a guy with too much time on his hands,
Should I really rhyme or should I try to make you dance?
I’d give anything a try, except for f*cking or sucking a guy,
Flowing til the day that I singular dice, die,
Every rapper think that he’s nice, why?
Making my blood boil, that they rich like soil,
Cuz you as enjoyable as chewing on tin foil,
Hands been coiled,
Around the mic like a boa constrictor,
While the poor get poorer, and the rich richer, go figure,
No original gangsta but I owe g’s,
To bank loans and credit card companies,
Pumping me with alcohol, i’m bout to fall, somebody please!,
Catch me, let it be someone who’s got a friggin bag of weed,
Dippin in my bag of leaves cuz puffin on the trees,
Is my cup of tea, a couple of these,
Are getting me right, I write because,
Nowadays talk the only thing that’s coming cheap,
Listen up or plug your ears, whatever, I don’t need respect,
I just need to get it off of my chest like a V neck,
So when I drop it like Mohammed Ali holding a bar of soap,
I gotcha saying golly gee the dude is really dope,
I told ya so, ya thought that I was blowing smoke up ya ass,
But now i’m blowing ya mind, and blowing some money while blowing that grass,
I hope ya still feeling me, like a phantom limb, with an artificial arm,
Grabbing you with hooks, i’m in ya head, you motha fuckas sing along,
Making magical music like i’m waving a wand,
From the break of dawn til the early morn,
Trying to grow my green like i’m fertilizing the lawn,
You shoulda known this guy is a frickin tickin time bomb,
And the sky is the limit for him, i’m itching to get right up in,
The booth and let loose, and get my rhyme on

@Grey: *Ahem*…I absolutely insisted. Suggested long ago, in a primitive time before the revelation of the hip hop line of the day. You asked someone else what new arts you should partake in, the name of the gentleman escapes me, however a young and brash man named Nick, the dick some might say, dared to intervene and bestow his knowledge of the great works of RA, sadly to no avail. Only his pesistance rilvaled his will, and with enough mentions, history was indeed made.

G thank you for all the good stuff this year, i’m in 2 leagues and on the brink of getting the 1st overall seed in both. I’m 1 game back in one and 1 1/2 out in the other with easy teams to beat this week so send me some of that mustachio luck to win em both!

Hello Grey,
I am currently sitting on Polanco, Bryant and now Soler on my Bench in our Yahoo 12 Team H2H Keeper League. These guys would all be 12th Rounders next season as that is the rule with Free Agents. Do you see any of these guys being worth keeping for a 12th Rounder? Even 1 would be nice. We get to keep 2 Players.

Hey Grey… quick question, currently in 4th place(final playoff spot) H2H 12 team 5X5, 4 keeper league,but only up by 1/2 a game. Need to keep pace in HR’s, RBI’s, OBP and to a lesser extent steals, to hold my spot this week. Trying to choose 3 from Avisial, Soler, Pearce and Arcia. Also the other quandary I have is stick it out with Alcides at SS, or pick up the slightly resurgent Aybar? As always thanks for the advice!

@Grey: Thanks Gey, I was really stuck on Avisail or Arcia(due to Arcia’s ridiculous numbers over the last 15 days) and Alicedes speed “potential” over Aybars consistency and better OBP of late. I assume you prefer Avisail over Arcia due to the latters streakiness and propensity for whiffs?

Sucks when real life gets in the way of fantasy. Set my lineups read this made 1 comment couldn’t get back to puter. Last night i got 6-40 and Odorizzo. I actually laughed. Danny Santana was dropped. Would you pick him up over Reyes or Dee. Beter start Kuechal@oak Q @ Tex thanks hope you had a nice weekend and none of the Cali boys were affected by the Quake

I’m back from Odorizzi island – and I’m going back this weekend for Boston – I just can’t quit him.

I have a 7 game lead playing 2nd place this week for the regular season H2H 6×6 champion – winner takes $550 – all I need is 3 categories. Thanks for all the help this year Grey, let’s wrap this shizz up B!

@Grey: Should we have a nomination process by the readers..ie have them do all the leg work and present their favorites to me. Grey/Rudy will be one person like Lennon/McCartney or LaVerne and Shirley.

I also would like to have a top three RCL team names. It would be a vote choosing a top three from a list of ten.

I know this is irrelevant to this post, but who would you go with ROS: Steve Pearce or Mark Trumbo? I could use a bump in runs scored and batting average from Pearce, but if I drop trumbo im not getting him back, and he could still get crazy hot in a week or two.

You mentioned in a post earlier this week that you tend to ignore batting average when drafting/targeting players and instead focus on stolen bases and home runs. Can you go into a little more detail on why? Thank you in advance.

Pats just traded away their captain and best offensive lineman, Logan Mankins, to Tampa Bay for a fourth round pick and tight end Timothy Wright – who had a nicely quiet year last year. Tells me Gronk might be hurt or that Wright (a pass catching tight-end) will play Aaron Hernandez to Gronk’s Gronk. Hope it doesn’t hurt Vareen’s value as I thought HE’D play that role. Yeah – sorry Grey, gearing up for FF.

@Toe Knee: I know Arm Ass. And I am sorry. It won’t happen again. I just like to help razzfolk with a quick blast before it is more widely known. Again, I do apologize for the football talk and won’t duplicate it here.

@grey — I have Sal Perez but I can’t keep him after the season. Wilson Ramos is sitting out there and if I grab him i can keep him next year for $1. Do you think Sal outproduces him ROS significantly or are they a wash from here? And do you like Ramos at a $1 going into next year or is he a waste of a slot? Please and thanks.

@Grey: Do you think Ramos is worth having at $1 going into next season or does he fall outside the top 10 catchers and have limited upside at age 27-28 to be worth occupying a spot going into next year?

Got a question for you since I just got this feeling. CJ Edwards was stalled this year due to some mid-season shoulder inflammation. He’s back to being outstanding in his last 3 starts since coming back. Edwards threw 116 innings last year and is only at 50 this year with the minor league season almost at an end. I’m betting the Cubs would like to get him up to at least 116 this year which would require a full slate of starts for the Cubs (come Sept 1) and then a full AFL.

You think I’m thinking right on this and do you think he’ll be worth a waiver add? (I sent Grandy packing to pick him up since I had Soler to replace Grandy’s sorry numbers)

In a ten tm 5 player keeper I can acquire sale and Robertson which gives me a really good shot at going for it this year. Only thing it kills my draft next year. I would have to move two 6th rd picks (which is our first rd).

I would pick non rds 7 and 9 for first two picks. I should make the deal and go for the glory right?

Quick! Molina’s available in my *8-TEAM* league. Would you drop Mesoraco or Gattis for him? Mesoraco is cold and sits a lot. Should I even carry a second catcher when Kennys Vargas is available?! I also have Matt Carpenter as a second 3B to Donaldson. Am I wasting valuable space with him as well?

I lucked out and got a first round bye and a 2nd round cup cake for my H2H playoffs, so I am tweaking the roster for championship week – the week of 9/15. In an OBP league pick 1 to drop of the following:

Calhoun 4vSEA, 3vTEX
Carter 4vCLE, 3vSEA
Soler 3vCIN, 4vLAD

With Calhoun in a great lineup and Carter playing at home vs Soler playing in a weaker lineup vs stronger pitching, I think I drop Soler, right?

Another tweak…I have a DL spot and 2 free lineup spots to play with before 9/8. On 9/8 one spot will have to be filled with a catcher. On 9/15 I’ll need a pitcher. Molina, Y. Gomes, R. Martin, Wacha, Bailey and Votto are all on the waiver wire. Votto would be replacing one of Carter/Soler/Calhoun if he comes off. My thought was to stash Wacha, Bailey and Votto until the 8th and drop which ever one is making the least progress for a catcher. I think there is a 50% chance that one and only one of the catchers is picked up between now and then and a 50% chance that none are picked up. I figure the catchers are actually pretty close in value (in a league that has OBP and errors as categories – Gomes has a LOT of errors) so if someone does pick one of them up, no great loss. Am I right?

@Grey: Thanks AGAIN! Had another thought. Is the best solution to combine both tweaks together and pick up Soler instead of either Wacha or Bailey, give it a week to see Soler heats up and Carter cools down or vice versa then drop either Soler or Carter then for Wacha or Bailey? If so, who should I let wait on the waiver – Wacha or Bailey?

Harper sits again vs. Hamels. Does Matt Williams realize Harper is 8 for 25 against Hamels lifetime and is hitting lefties at a .281 clip in 79 ABs this year? Scott Hairston has great numbers vs. Hamels lifetime, but is also Scott Hairston. I digress, off to the hittertron I go to look for a fill in.

2014 is a lost cause in my 12-team roto league. I get to keep three guys for one year. Trout costs me a Rd. 1 pick, but that’s a no-brainer. Yeah, it’s premature, but which two would you keep among the following?

mesoraco now with 3rd day off out of 4, and 2nd in a row. i don’t care how bad he’s hitting lately, nor should CIN, he’s been a top 5 catcher all year. i can’t be carrying 2 catchers again, i’m busy wasting roster spots with 2 closers for one job (familia/mejia) and don’t even have room to take soler off NA yet.

one of those on the fence decisions to bench 2 out of arenado/duda/alcantara looking like i should’ve trusted Hitter T and put in alcantara instead of arenado, but he hasn’t played yet. is nice deeper league where alcantara starts every day due to used to having segura.

even though i’m in 5th and have 7 game lead on bubble boy 7th place, he’s kicking ass so far and i’m getting destroyed and benching wrong closers to play 5 starters today (mejia/familia/o flaherty benched for casilly/k-rob). 6th place also getting ass kicked. 13 days left in season. this is gonna get gross.

@jef with 1 f: true, but i’m getting nervous. i’m playing against team that each and every person he drafted has either met expectations or beaten them badly. rizzo/rendon/stanton/rollins. i’ve had longo/every drafted 2B (wong early season/gyorko/miller)/rios/andrus, so even though he drafted pitchers too early (f-her/bumgarner) he’s gotten away with it, meanwhile i don’t pay for pitchers and only early one for me that’s doing well now is cobb. first good thing to happen to me was opp picked up gregerson, who just got rid of hammel’s win (i get to face hammel in his first good start in 2 months (why is he even owned in league this size)), but opp also just picked up fields, so he keeps the win.

comish GORDON! baby, him an shoemaker (probably) only good things happening in main league today. with harrison. getting ready to dodge apples…. as gregerson opp, and having o’flaherty on bench that gregerson implosion was pretty good for me. also i have keuchel so i dodged a loss on that one too. in fact every pitcher of importance in that game except qualls is on me or my opp’s team.

Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Seasonsays:
August 26, 2014 at 7:58 pm (link)

there’s cahill back to thinking it’s april or may or whenever he was demoted. and here i was about to drop hammel for streamers over cahill. last 6 or however weeks of valuating flip flopped in one day.

it seems quintana has gone back to streamer land (except for 20 and 30 team dynasties where i traded for him in the last month), if so which is best of these
santiago vs MIA
vogel vs MIL
volquez vs CIN
vargas vs CLE
tillman vs MIN
pineda @ TOR
gee vs PHI

now only up 1 K with bumgarner’s 13 K’s. due to that i’ll probably keep quintana for his end of week start (since my era is already damn ugly and way behind opp, who’s only had paxton/bumgarner/hammel/gregerson/fields/romo go so far). i could drop wily p after his start. i could always get him back later anyway. i need to win the categories i can to stay in playoffs as is.

@goodfold2: considering K needs and only 1 pickup left for week (thanks OAK manager-OAK media for delay on closer news) only choose through the tillman and ones lower, since i’ll likely need to keep quintana for his K’s, unless of course i have a chance at losses by that point in the week.